Niue

Culture

We take pride in our many traditions and culture that have been handed down from generation to generation as a "living entity". Many are still being observed today such as our "kaloama season" where seasonal 'sardine like' fish visit our shores. When the Kaloama run, some reef areas are closed from public swimming but there are still numerous other swimming pools and coves that can be used during that short period. You need only ask for guidance from locals or at the Niue Information & Booking Centre. 

Haircutting and Ear Piercing Ceremonies
A major event for a teenage boy is his haircutting ceremony, when the long tail of hair that he has kept since childhood is removed. Guests invited to the concurrent feast each contribute hundreds of dollars to a fund that goes to the boy after the celebration costs are paid.

For girls there is a similar ear piercing ceremony. These gatherings are usually held on a Saturday in private homes. Families welcome visitors to these occasions when permission is asked beforehand. It is an opportunity to see and witness a local tradition and share in that experience with the host family.

Handycrafts
Hats are the glory of Niue. The tradition has run strongly for over a century and a half and has gained support from the church going habits the Niue people aquired in the early nineteen hundreds. If one observes the shapes of some of the hats with the demure bonnet its Sabbatical, Victorian ancenstry is impossible to mistake. Indeed much of the inspiration for these hats derives still from the missioning, colonising age. Movements in the nineteenth century fashion, Edwardian too, are echoed in these plates.

The ladies of Niue like to display and find pleasure in making and wearingf gay, imposing or frivolous headgear. They indeed used to have something of a mania for it and, after copra, hats were the principal export of the Island. About 1900, the value of this trade was 3000 pounds a year, a significant sum and nearly half the total exports of Niue. At the industrys peak, it was claimed that 30,000 hats were exported annually.

The material is mostly pandanus, with a variety of them around and the methods of preparation are also varied. The hat blocks were used especially for its finest work. In fact, and particularly for the whitest appearance is usually carried out in the split and bleached young coconut leaves.

Niue makes all sorts of tablemats, and here too brings elegance to utility. Some big tablemats of 15,20,30 inches in diameter are either used to enhance dinning table set or hang on walls for decorative purposes.

The big mats of around 7*4 or 6*3 are made for presentation purposes but also widely used by everyone here in Niue. Weavers here in Niue take pride in their handcrafts they also incorporate art into their work.

Weaving bowls are of different sizes and different techniques and they can be used as fruit bowls, bread bowls, jewellery bowls, or just displayed at the office or at home.